The following is an excerpt from ReDefining: Rethink, Repattern, and Recreate Yourself that gives examples of words individuals have personally explored and redefined in various ReDefining workshops.

Example: Intimacy

At a weekend workshop an artistically gifted woman in sharing her journaling of the key word intimacy took an entirely different turn in redefining the concept. This caught everyone's attention. As with everyone's perspective, the patterns of thought we share in our communications shift and affect us all - some turns are a little sharper than others.

"The essential part of identity is our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves. The most intimate thing one can do is to fall asleep and dream - for in dreaming you are sharing yourself with yourself - exploring and experiencing thoughts, aspects, and regions of yourself that are recognized and unrecognized - meeting and encountering mysteries and memories as close as your heart, or as alien as a sentimental smile. I meet myself in my dreams - I make myself in my dreams - there is no greater intimacy."

This person's perspective on intimacy was her own, and yet listening to what she had written altered the views of everyone else. It pulled at the edges of their concept of intimacy.

Example: Vulnerable

As an Iranian, this woman has sought a country with freedom in which to live and create her life. Though her past and her perspectives may be different, the depth in which we seek ourselves is similar. This is her perspective and exploration of the key word vulnerable.

I am vulnerable when I fight the past.
I am vulnerable when I am too scared to act.
I am vulnerable when I feel ignorant.
I am vulnerable when I lose hope.
I am vulnerable when I have enough hope to take risks.
I am vulnerable when I am not what I am expected to be.
I am vulnerable when I am who I am.
I am vulnerable when I forget the long way I have come with the choices I have made.

Example: Commerce

The next two explorations of the key word commerce are distinctly different "puzzle pieces." The individual who wrote the first essay is from Argentina and works with a global financial institution. A professor of philosophy wrote the second essay.

"Commerce is gray because They do not want to show the real color to Us. Commerce is for money and not for people, although it can be for some few people. We are six billion people alive on this planet and half live with one or two dollars a day, not more. Commerce is not for them. They can not buy anything and do not have anything to sell; it's as simple as that. It seems that poor people are not people because they are not part of the game. Commerce is not fair, is not transparent, and is not honest. Commerce is not based on trust. Commerce is the only way we know we can survive: most of Us buying, few of Them selling. Corporations are running the world and selling employee's (most of Us) souls. In order to work we have to be loyal to Them. I really do not like this game!"

"I miss the commerce defined in the ancient time of Greece, where everyone came to the market place. The market place is where you met to show off your skills, to exchange thoughts, favors, stories, and food. It was a special place where you formed fleeting or perpetual and meaningful bonds; where you fell in love and out of love, where you tested yourself, your prowess. In this age of TV, computers and cell phones, we can more and more remain aloof and not reliant on the real exchange. I miss that. I miss what happens naturally when we gather to exchange - the unpredictability enriching us all."

Example: Victim

During one of the bookstore's ReDefining sessions, there was an older woman who attended regularly, but participated little during the discussions. The key word for the evening was victim. We were silenced by her redefinition, as our thoughts explored the outline that she was drawing for a future, our future.

"I am Jewish and have suffered not only my own tragedy, but the tragedy of a whole people. I do not wish to honor this word with a definition - I redefine it by writing it out of my vocabulary. Not because I want to will it away and the memories that go with it, but because over the years I have learned I do not have to fall subject to sacrifice. This, we should all know. The line of history we remember never should have happened. I choose to rethink it, instead of remember it."

Your "puzzle piece" is your view of the world. No one has your perspective; no one has your vision. It is unique to the world and to the time. Your recognition and expression of yourself is not only valuable and vital to you, but essential to the whole.